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theevilgenius
Joined: 10 Sep 2010
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 Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:49 pm Post subject: Starting Up Your Own Business: Restaurant. |
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Hey,
I'm just wondering has anyone done this in Korea and has their own success story to tell.
I'm floating an idea about and just want to get some information.
Thank You. |
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Stan Rogers
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 6:55 pm Post subject: |
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| I know a guy who opened a flaffel truck in Itaewon. He is very rich now. |
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fosterman
Joined: 16 Nov 2011
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| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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| I know people who have opened , lost everything, closed down and went back into teaching. |
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swinewho
Joined: 17 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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What are you thinking about opening?
Where?
Who (clients) would you be aiming to attract?
Would they need 'educating' about your product?
Could it be easily copied by local people (assuming you were successful)? |
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tardisrider
Joined: 13 Mar 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Loads and loads of people in Korea have opened their own restaurants. Just look around; there are restaurants all over the place. |
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FDNY
Joined: 27 Sep 2010
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| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:04 pm Post subject: |
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| tardisrider wrote: |
| Loads and loads of people in Korea have opened their own restaurants. Just look around; there are restaurants all over the place. |
With a comment like that I think you should change your name to "Retardisrider". I am quite sure the OP was referring to expats opening a restaurant.
To answer your question. The ONLY place to open a foreign food reataurant, as a foreigner, would be Itaewon. It is the ONLY somewhat cosmopolitan district in the country. If you want to open a restaurant that serves Korean food, then anywhere would be OK. This should be obvious because if you open a foreign food restaurant anywhere else, then your target market would less than 1% of the population. A sure guarantee of failure. This being said, Itaewon is moving more upscale all the time, therefore be prepared to invest upwards of 200,000,000 to 300,000,000 KRW. For example, Craftworks put in about 400,000,000KRW and had reserves of cash for the first few months.
Restaurants are serious business in Korea requiring serious amounts of cash, skills and dedication. Enter that business with any other mindset and you may as well flush your money down the toilet. |
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tardisrider
Joined: 13 Mar 2003
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 8:53 pm Post subject: |
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| FDNY, once again you've made me laugh. |
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Skippy
Joined: 18 Jan 2003
Location: Daejeon
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| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:02 pm Post subject: |
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I know of a few people. There are really two routes, get married to a Korean or investor visa D-8. Getting the D8 was easier a few years ago with the base requirement was getting 50 million won. But it was upped to 100 million won now. You can use that money to run your business but even with the D8 visa you will have restrictions.
Most expats who open restaurants usually serve expat community. As to if that is a smart move is iffy. Marketing to a small minority can work but it can really sink. The best is to market both Korean and expats. But tastes really differ between each group. Best place to start would be Itaewon and Seoul. Yet that is getting flooded. Have known other places in Korea like the Shisha House in Daejeon (more cafe, bar, and restaurant) or "The Holy Grill" in Daegu. |
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motiontodismiss
Joined: 18 Dec 2011
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| Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:04 pm Post subject: |
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I think the first step would be to have at least 600MM won in cash, plus living expenses for at least the next two years saved up (you'd be lucky to break even in two years, let alone turn a profit). A restaurant is not something you can do part-time unless you're super-rich and can pay people to do everything.
Then you need to have a good idea and actually learn to cook.
Going into debt to start a restaurant? That's just financial suicide. |
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Troglodyte
Joined: 06 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 2:39 am Post subject: |
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| Stan Rogers wrote: |
| I know a guy who opened a flaffel truck in Itaewon. He is very rich now. |
A food wagon is probably a lot better investment than a restaurant. Less overhead, so less risk if the business goes under. More mobility, so you can go where the customers are (i.e. outside the bars when the drunks are getting out and want a sandwich or something or next to the parks on the weekends, next to a school during the middle of a weekday). Probably also a lot easier to change your menu based on what the customers want. You also don't need to hire employees if you are capable of cooking yourself.
Korea really seems to be big on different mobile food vendors. Here I've seen everything from push carts with a stove or barbecue, to ice cream bikes, to some guy with a little kitchen set up in the back of a minivan up to the full sized lunch trucks with a full kitchen in the back. If you want to get started in the food industry, a van or something would probably be a good way to start out. |
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fosterman
Joined: 16 Nov 2011
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| Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 3:51 am Post subject: |
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| Troglodyte wrote: |
| Stan Rogers wrote: |
| I know a guy who opened a flaffel truck in Itaewon. He is very rich now. |
A food wagon is probably a lot better investment than a restaurant. Less overhead, so less risk if the business goes under. More mobility, so you can go where the customers are (i.e. outside the bars when the drunks are getting out and want a sandwich or something or next to the parks on the weekends, next to a school during the middle of a weekday). Probably also a lot easier to change your menu based on what the customers want. You also don't need to hire employees if you are capable of cooking yourself.
Korea really seems to be big on different mobile food vendors. Here I've seen everything from push carts with a stove or barbecue, to ice cream bikes, to some guy with a little kitchen set up in the back of a minivan up to the full sized lunch trucks with a full kitchen in the back. If you want to get started in the food industry, a van or something would probably be a good way to start out. |
sure, except it's illegal! so I don't know if that's really the best route.
and no their are no permits. |
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nicwr2002
Joined: 17 Aug 2011
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 6:38 pm Post subject: wow |
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| fosterman wrote: |
| Troglodyte wrote: |
| Stan Rogers wrote: |
| I know a guy who opened a flaffel truck in Itaewon. He is very rich now. |
A food wagon is probably a lot better investment than a restaurant. Less overhead, so less risk if the business goes under. More mobility, so you can go where the customers are (i.e. outside the bars when the drunks are getting out and want a sandwich or something or next to the parks on the weekends, next to a school during the middle of a weekday). Probably also a lot easier to change your menu based on what the customers want. You also don't need to hire employees if you are capable of cooking yourself.
Korea really seems to be big on different mobile food vendors. Here I've seen everything from push carts with a stove or barbecue, to ice cream bikes, to some guy with a little kitchen set up in the back of a minivan up to the full sized lunch trucks with a full kitchen in the back. If you want to get started in the food industry, a van or something would probably be a good way to start out. |
sure, except it's illegal! so I don't know if that's really the best route.
and no their are no permits. |
All these people who have food wagons must be extremely lucky or paying the authorities off to stay then. I know kebab people who've been here 5 years or more... |
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Nismo
Joined: 31 Aug 2005
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 7:02 pm Post subject: Re: wow |
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| nicwr2002 wrote: |
| fosterman wrote: |
| Troglodyte wrote: |
| Stan Rogers wrote: |
| I know a guy who opened a flaffel truck in Itaewon. He is very rich now. |
A food wagon is probably a lot better investment than a restaurant. Less overhead, so less risk if the business goes under. More mobility, so you can go where the customers are (i.e. outside the bars when the drunks are getting out and want a sandwich or something or next to the parks on the weekends, next to a school during the middle of a weekday). Probably also a lot easier to change your menu based on what the customers want. You also don't need to hire employees if you are capable of cooking yourself.
Korea really seems to be big on different mobile food vendors. Here I've seen everything from push carts with a stove or barbecue, to ice cream bikes, to some guy with a little kitchen set up in the back of a minivan up to the full sized lunch trucks with a full kitchen in the back. If you want to get started in the food industry, a van or something would probably be a good way to start out. |
sure, except it's illegal! so I don't know if that's really the best route.
and no their are no permits. |
All these people who have food wagons must be extremely lucky or paying the authorities off to stay then. I know kebab people who've been here 5 years or more... |
It's illegal in the sense that prostitution is illegal in Korea. An easy way to tell if a business is legitimate or not these days is to confirm whether or not they accept credit cards. If their credit card machines have been "broken" for the last three years, that means they probably aren't paying taxes.
Recently, there has been a crackdown on the salespeople who operate on trains in Seoul, so there may be a similar crackdown on illegal operations such as food carts in the near future. |
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fermentation
Joined: 22 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 7:35 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| An easy way to tell if a business is legitimate or not these days is to confirm whether or not they accept credit cards. |
I don't think that's true. I'm pretty sure a lot of prostitutes accept cards. |
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fosterman
Joined: 16 Nov 2011
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| Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 8:28 pm Post subject: Re: wow |
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| nicwr2002 wrote: |
All these people who have food wagons must be extremely lucky or paying the authorities off to stay then. I know kebab people who've been here 5 years or more... |
yeah, they probably get fined once and a while, or the cops drive past and tell them to shove off, but then you just pack up, drive around the corner for 1 hour and then come back again.
there have been major crack downs by the government where they will come, clamp your truck, impound or the tables, chairs, or what ever else you have set up, then lock it up and then you will need to come down to the office and pay for it's release, kind of call it, getting the TAX BACK. costs like 3-5 million won to retrieve the goods, but the crack downs are not that often. the police and governments have more effective ways of making money, example, all the Cameras around the country where they catch drivers, such a more lucrative business for the government. ooops I mean a safety measure to protect drivers lives!  |
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